…doesn’t imply anything about right or wrong.
How many times have you gotten into the ping-pong game of “Who remembers it right?”
“I know I remember it right because…”
“But I know I remember it right because…”
Unless you have a time machine, and can go back together and record whatever event you’re talking about, it becomes a pointless discussion.
What is really important? That is, what am I trying to prove beyond that I remember something right?
Not to forget that there’s the solitaire version of the game. It goes like this:
“I was on my way to work on Tuesday… no, wait, it was Wednesday… no, Tuesday… maybe it was Monday…”
Why do we care? Why is it important that – in telling my story – I get the day of the week right?
Perhaps because I fear that (a) you will catch me in an incorrect statement and, therefore, (b) that will generally downgrade my credibility, and (c) I will have less value in the world.
Am I really being tested and measured and evaluated all the time?
Well, to a certain extent, yes I am.
Okay – and does it matter?
Ah! Hmm… No, I don’t think it does.
Well, sure, it matters that people I live with and work with and deal with believe that I’m an honest person.
But in most cases, these trivialities only get in the way. When I tell you my heart attack story, do you care whether I had my heart attack on a Sunday or a Monday or a Tuesday? Nope. And yet I’m likely to get caught up in getting it right, because I believe that in our culture getting it right is highly valued.
I believe that worrying about getting the minutiae right frequently gets in the way of communicating the larger, more important stuff.
Granted that if I get most of the details wrong, my listener may deprecate everything else I have to say.
So let’s get back to the original question.
I think that when you get into an argument/disagreement about who remembers what correctly, you should ask yourself “what’s really important here?”
